Sunday, September 18, 2016

Focus on a winged Ood up to no good

Looking like a winged Ood up to no good, Masked Lapwing (Spur-winged Plover: Vanellus miles) targets me at Cattle Creek. They're mostly bluffers, and the spurs are not such high-speed threats but collision wouldn't be pleasant. Hard to keep them in focus so pays not to be thinking 'what if?'.

Short walk into wetland aimed to look for Latham's Snipe. They've gone from some other areas as the migrants continue on south after stopping locally to feed following their long flights from Northern Hemisphere. But I did find five birds between the highway and the rail bridge about 500m east. Be warned, the open pool is home to big Salty. Above picture is holdover from the early arrivals.

2 comments:

Mosura said...

That's a beautiful shot of the snipe.

Latham's snipe has eluded me for years but finally saw 8 a couple of weeks back. Not sitting pretty like that one but in flight. Maybe next time.

Tyto Tony said...

Could be they're moving further south as temps rise and, maybe, some feeding areas fall victim to various urbanisation consequences.

Head up for dragonfly, head off for fish head . . .

One moment it's dragonfly trying to dance on White-bellied Sea-Eagle's head, the next it's all go for fisher's discarded fis...